[Ranma] "Scarlet Spring" (8/11)
By Henry J. Cobb
$Id: scarlet_spring8.txt,v 1.3 1997/02/09 16:15:49 hcobb Exp $

The Ranma 1/2 characters and situations are the creation of Rumiko
Takahashi.  No infringement of her copyrights is intended.

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So far:

Akane met Shampoo (X'ian-ko) in China six years ago, when she stayed in
her house while recovering from a fever she picked up in a cursed
spring.

Shampoo came to Nerima to kill Akane (she followed her Panda?), was
defeated by Ranma, fixated on him, tried the memory block trick, failed
and has now returned to China.

Akane has gotten Ranma to pretend to be happy about being her fiancee,
so as to protect her father, but it's all just a game to her.

Akane knows that Ranma turns into some girl (who she hasn't seen) and
that there is another girl that looks just like herself and has claimed
to be her.

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That Saturday, Akane had just returned from a tennis match, when she
heard a tentative knock on the front door behind her.  "Hello?
X'ian-ko!"  Akane tightly hugged Shampoo.  "I'm so sorry about what I
said X'ian-ko."

"Shampoo know, Ak-ko do it for Ranma."

Ranma looked up from the latest issue of Karate Quarterly and noticed
that Shampoo's elaborate locks had been trimmed down to a simple
ponytail, exactly the same style that he, Kasumi and Akane wore, except
that Shampoo's hair was purple.  "Nice hairstyle Shampoo."

"Ranma like?  Shampoo not choose it, it go like this."

"Interesting."  Ranma went back to reading his magazine.

"X'ian-ko have something to show Ak-ko."  she took Akane's hand and lead
her to the bathroom.

"What is it X'ian-ko?"

"Ak-ko watch."   Shampoo slid out of her clothes and splashed herself
with cold water from the shower.  In an instant, she was transformed
into an exact double for Akane.

Akane stood stunned speechless as Shampoo removed her clothing too.
Stopping only to show her how exact the match was in every part.
Fingerprints, vein networks, even the patterns of her irises.

The two girls stood facing each other and Akane was almost about to
speak, when the bathroom door slid open.

"Woops!  Sorry."   Ranma said.  "I was afraid that Shampoo might be
strangling you.  Don't mind me.  Do carry on."   Ranma slid the door shut
and walked away.

"That pervert!"  Akane fumed, then turned to Shampoo with a devilish
glint in her eyes.  "Let's teach him a lesson."

The first step was a nice long bath.  Shampoo reverted to her true form
as she touched the warm water.  The two girls scrubbed each other, with
Akane taking extra care to remove all trace of Shampoo's perfume, as she
herself didn't wear any.  Afterwards, she gave Shampoo a cold rinse to
give her the matching form again.

Next they went to Akane's room, where she laid out two of her outfits
then flipped a coin to decide which one Shampoo would wear.

Finally they stepped downstairs, where the rest of the family was
gathered for dinner.  Everybody but Ranma seemed stunned as the two
Akanes silently stepped to the table and sat down on either side of
Ranma.

Ranma slapped Shampoo, but with less than his usual force.

"How Ranma know?"  Shampoo held a hand to her cheek.

"You may look like Akane, but you sure don't move like her.  You strut
like a streetwalker."

"Ranma!"  Akane was shocked.  "How could you say such a thing?"

"Just look at her, putting her goofy grin on your delicate features.
It's hideous."

"I'm hideous?"  Akane glared at Ranma.

"No, you're beautiful.  That's what makes her stealing your form so
ugly.  But, I guess you've finally found that girl who looks so much
like you."

"No, Shampoo isn't that girl."  at Ranma's questioning glance, Akane
continued, "I took a bath with Shampoo when she first showed up, and she
didn't transform then.  This is more recent.  How did it happen
X'ian-ko?"

"Great dishonor.  Shampoo return to tribe without kill Akane or marry
Ranma.  Shampoo get train over from beginning.  Shampoo loose fight,
fall in spring, get curse."

"There's a spring that turns people into me?"  Akane asked.  "Like the
panda spring that Genma fell in?"

"And who could so humble the mighty amazon warrior?"  Ranma sarcasticly
interrupted.

"She did."  Shampoo pointed at two-foot crone standing in the doorway on
top of a stick.

The old woman harshly addressed Shampoo in Chinese.  Shampoo meekly
replied in the same language.

Akane leapt up and grabbed Shampoo's great-grandmother.  "Khu Lon-sama!
I was so afraid that you had died, that the fever I had brought to your
village had killed you!"

"Transference fever isn't contagious.  And as for the touch of pneumonia
you had child, it wasn't anything we couldn't handle.  There's still
life in these old bones, but not for much longer, if you keep swinging
me around like this."

"I'm sorry grandmother."   Akane gently set Cologne down.  "I'm just so
happy to see you again."

"So this is the boy who is to be Shampoo's groom."   Cologne pointed at
Ranma.  "He doesn't look like much."

"Ranma great warrior!"  Shampoo objected.

"Not a chance! Er, um."   Ranma had missed the right moment to interrupt.

"Ranma is Akane's fiancee!"  Soun shouted.  "I may owe you my daughter's
life Cologne, but this is asking too much.  The future of the School of
Indiscriminate Grappling depends on him."

"You think so highly of him?  We shall see."  Cologne leapt on top of her
stick and pogoed away.

"Akane, you know the strangest people."  Ranma observed.

"Shampoo should go now."  Shampoo got up.  "First need change back.  Not
proper, go around like Ak-ko."

When Shampoo came back downstairs, in her own face and clothes, she met
Akane at the door and silently hugged her.

"Wait! X'ian-ko, where are you staying?"

"We have new ramen shop, Nekohanten, in neighborhood.  Grand opening
tomorrow.  You two come?  Lunch on house."

"We'll be there, even if I have to drag Ranma by his ponytail."

"It opens tomorrow?"  Ranma asked.  "That was quick."

"Everyone work extra hard.  Not want disappoint great-grandmother."

Noon Sunday, Ranma grumbled, but came along with Akane to the
Nekohanten.  Half the tables were empty, despite the opening specials.
Akane and Ranma got a table to themselves.

Shampoo, in a Chinese waitress outfit, placed two bowls in front of
them.  "Is deluxe ramen, special family recipe."

"Excuse me, I need to powder my nose."  Akane got up after Shampoo had
returned to the back room.

A few minutes later, an Akane, in Akane's outfit, came back and sat in
Akane's chair.  As she reached for the chopsticks, Ranma interrupted her.

"Shampoo, if you don't bring Akane out now, I will happily level this
place."

"How do you always know?"  Akane stepped out from where she had been
watching, in Shampoo's waitress uniform.

"Uh, excuse me miss."  another customer asked.  "We're ready to place our
orders now."

Not wanting to get Shampoo in trouble, Akane rushed to take the order.

Minutes later, as she carried four bowls out from the kitchen, to feed a
steadily increasing crowd, Akane heard Shampoo ask.

"Ranma not ask Shampoo go, Akane come back?"

"Not until she's learned her lesson.  I think she's found her niche."

"Shampoo so happy."

"Just watch the way you slurp with her lips, or I'll use that bowl to
transform you back."

"Shampoo sorry."

Thirty minutes later, Akane was getting slightly winded from the
constant hustle.

"OK, go switch back now."  Ranma said to Shampoo.  "You're beginning to
get on my nerves."

"Shampoo sorry."

As the two girls walked into the back to change, a teenage boy nudged
his friend.  "Say, don't those two look kinda alike?"

"Yeah, but which one is cuter?"

As they walked back to the Tendo residence, Akane asked Ranma.  "How
would you describe your first date with Shampoo?"

"One word, fear."

"FEAR?"

"Yeah, I was afraid she'd leap over the table and grab me.  Good thing,
she knew what I'd do. POW! Right in the kisser."

"Oh Ranma, you're so romantic."

Monday morning, on the way to school, Ranma suddenly ducked to the side
as a stick poked in his direction, he replied with a swift kick, but
Cologne threw him.

"Excellent reflexes, son in law."

"I am not marrying that bimbo, you old bat."  Ranma punched at Cologne,
but she simply stepped aside.

"We shall see about that."  Cologne pogoed away.

"This is your fault."  Ranma threw at Akane.

"My fault?"

"Yeah, you keep encouraging Shampoo.  ``Here's Ranma, come and get
him''."

"Can't you see how much she loves you?"

"She loves me because I beat her up?  I don't think so."

That night, Akane heard a tapping at her window.  It was Shampoo, in her
cursed form.  Akane let the other Akane in.

"Ak-ko, X'ian-ko so sorry."

"Why, what is it?"  Akane held Shampoo for several minutes as she cried.

	Henry J. Cobb	hcobb@slip.net          http://www.io.com/~hcobb
    Next time: Cat's tongue, Mousse's challenge, you know the plain old
    ordinary regular continuity, right?